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That Sinking Feeling
Somewhere in the Baltic the Swedish trawler Christina is scanned by a helicopter piloted by the Oktober Guard. Daina reports the trawler is exactly as it appears but Colonel Brekhov is suspicious as there are no fish on the deck. On board the trawler Torpedo spots the Oktober Guard and so Deep Six and Wet-Suit rush to secure a tarpaulin. Brekhov orders another sweep by of the trawler and identifies Deep Six on the deck, realising that the crew are G.I. Joe members with nautical specialities and the rumours about a disabled US submarine on the Baltic seabed must be true. Suddenly three Cobra F.A.N.G.s fly in, headed by the Baroness, and attack the Soviet helicopter. The two supporting F.A.N.G.s are shot down and both the Baroness's and the Soviet helicopter are damaged and withdraw. On the deck of the trawler Deep Six suits up and takes the S.H.A.R.C. underwater. The Soviet helicopter reaches the mother-ship Udaloy and crashes on the deck where the rest of the Oktober Guard are waiting. Brekhov tells Captain Bulgakov, the harbour master of Kalingrad (where the Soviet Balkan fleet is stationed) that a US submarine is immobilised on the seabed and its capture would be advantageous. But Bulgakov points out that the G.I. Joe team would have to be neutralised and they are on a Swedish vessel under Swedish flags and obviously carrying Swedish papers - a diplomatic incident would be caused. Meanwhile further out at sea the Baroness's F.A.N.G. finally crashes and she jumps into the sea, to be rescued by a squad of Eels and the Moray hydrofoil. She tells them they have to hold both G.I. Joe and the Soviets at bay until a Cobra salvage sub can arrive and discover the US secrets for themselves. At the Christina Deep Six's transmissions are received and he sends video pictures of the immobilised submarine. Meanwhile the Udaloy comes close and Bulgkov shouts at them that they are in a restricted zone, but Cutter responds in Swedish as pretending to not understand. Meanwhile Daina and Horrorshow don wetsuits and head underwater to first attach a relay transmitter to the S.H.A.R.C.'s cable to relay the signal and then whilst Horrorshow reconnoitres the S.H.A.R.C. itself Daina will harass the Moray hydrofoil that has now arrived. The Baroness shouts to the Christina that she knows who they really are and proposes a temporary truce & unity against the soviets, whilst Firefly dispatches two Eels to board the Udaloy. On the Udaloy the video transmission from the S.H.A.R.C. is picked up, confirming the sunken submarine. The Eels are listening outside the bridge and radio the news to the Baroness, who orders them to immobilise the ship's armaments and the Eels throw satchel charges, destroying the main turret. They fight the Oktober Guard. Daine now boards the Moray and throws a grenade into the bridge, knocking out the controls. The Moray heads towards the Udaloy with no way to turn or stop. On the Christina Cutter orders Torpedo and Wet-Suit to suit up and enter the water. Down on the sea bed Horrorshow reaches the S.H.A.R.C. and pulls open the over to find no aquanaut aboard but a video player. Suddenly Deep Six attacks him from behind. Up above the Moray collides with the Udaloy and the Baroness and Firefly board and attack. Between them and the Eels they have the Oktober Guard in a crossfire. Up on the bridge Bulgakov shouts to Brekhov to prevent the Cobra from winning "for reasons you would find quite surprising". Daina now secretly boards the stern and snipes down the two Eels. On the far side Torpedo and Wet-Suit board and head to the bridge where Bulgakov welcomes them and takes a harness from them. On deck the Oktober Guard tell the Baroness and Firefly that the Eels have been neutralised and they should surrender, but the Cobra agents are defiant as the Cobra salvage submarine has now arrived, commanded by Destro. But Destro shouts to everyone to cease hostilities - there was no sunken submarine and the whole thing is a G.I. Joe fabrication. The video image was a pre-recorded tape of a model in a tank and the sound signature was generated by a target practice sonic-simulator torpedo. And he identifies Bulgakov, now standing on the roof the bridge wearing a harness attached to a weather balloon, as the reason. The captain confirms the suspicions - he is defecting. His wife was a loyal party member with a grandfather who was a hero of the October Revolution and a father who lost both legs at Stalingrad, but she was a Jew and didn't realise the party held it against her. When she realised that it meant her husband would never become an admiral she stopped wanting to live and died that January. Bulgakov's loyalty to the party died with her. A C130, piloted by Hawk and Wild Bill, flies in and snags Bulgakov's balloon rope, taking him away. Destro and Brekhov realise the whole thing was a ploy to enable Bulgakov's defection and they needed Cobra to cause a distraction, hence both sides were leaked the information about the submarine. On board the C130 Hawk and Wild Bill congratulate themselves on a mission where they didn't have to fire a single shot. Torpedo and Wet-Suit return to the Christina as the S.H.A.R.C. is hauled aboard and Deep-Six shows his prisoner - Horrorshow. As they are leaving Shipwreck throws the Guardsman back in the sea and distributes cans of Yo-Jo Cola. On the Udaloy the Baroness tells Brekhov that he can't shoot her or Firefly as Destro has his torpedo tubes pointed right at the ship. Brekhov agrees with the situation "which doesn't mean I have to be civil about it" and throws them in the sea. |Appearing1= Featured Characters Featured Vehicles & Equipment |MemorableQuotes1= The Baroness' reference to "the geriatric gnomes of Moscow". "No smorgasbord Saab turbo." :--And a hearty "bork bork bork" to you too, Cutter. "For Cobraaaa!" "For personal survival and the promise of riches!" :--'Baroness' and Firefly have different motivations. |Errors1= *Many of the Baroness and Oktober Guard members' lines are in the spiky speech bubbles that normally indicate voices heard over a radio or telephone, even though they are physically present. * Deep-Six is much more talkative here than he was previously, to the point where it doesn't seem like developing the character so much as forgetting his established personality entirely. |ItemsOfNote1=* First appearance: Polly, Captain Bulgakov *In the United Kingdom the story was reprinted in Action Force #5 & #6. |RealWorldRefs1=* A Saab Turbo is a kind of car. * A footnote explains the history of the famous battleship Potemkin. |Footnotes= }}